Warning shot talk angers China

ESCALATION:Chinese media has responded to Japan saying it may use tracer fire to warn off foreign aircraft by quoting military experts who said China would return fire

AP, TOKYO

Japanese Minister of Defense Itsunori Onodera, third left, is seen near a E-2C Early Warning aircraft at the Naha base of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force in Okinawa on Wednesday.

Photo: EPA

Japan says it may fire warning shots and take other measures to keep foreign aircraft from violating its airspace in the latest verbal blast between Tokyo and Beijing that raises concerns that a dispute over the hotly contested Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) could spin out of control.

Japanese officials made the comments after Chinese fighters tailed its warplanes near the islands recently. The incident is believed to be the first scrambling of Chinese fighters since the tensions began to rise last spring.

According to Chinese media, a pair of J-10 fighters was scrambled after Japanese F-15s began tailing a Chinese surveillance plane near the disputed islands in the East China Sea.

China has complained the surveillance flight did not violate Japanese airspace and the F-15s were harassing it.

It was the first time the Chinese media has reported fighters being mobilized to respond to Japanese air force activity in the area and comes amid what Japan says is a rapid intensification of Chinese air force activity around the islands, where Japanese and Chinese coast guard ships have squared off for months. Though there have been no outright clashes, the increased sea and air operations have fueled worries that the situation could spin out of control.

Such concerns have grown over official comments suggesting newly elected Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Cabinet are considering the use of “tracer” fire as a means of responding to airspace incursions. Tracer rounds are designed to burn brightly to get the attention of a pilot who may have missed other warnings due to a radio malfunction, while also indicating that the aircraft firing them is prepared to take further action.

“Every country has procedures for how to deal with a violation of its territory that continues after multiple cautionary measures,” Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said on Wednesday when asked if tracer shots would be fired against intruding aircraft that refuse to change course. “We have response measures ready that are consistent with global standards.”

Onodera said the use of warning shots has long been provided for under Japan’s defense policies and is widely accepted under international rules of engagement. Japan’s air force has not actually resorted to them since 1987 — against a Soviet aircraft — and none were fired last week.

However, Chinese and Japanese media have suggested Tokyo is publicly floating the possibility to test China’s reaction.

In Beijing last week, a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman said China is on “high alert” and suggested Japan is escalating the tensions over the islands, called the Senkakus in Japan and the Diaoyu Archipelago (釣魚群島) in China. Taiwan also claims the small isles, which are uninhabited, but may be surrounded by valuable underwater natural resources.

“Chinese planes and ships are exercising normal jurisdiction in the waters and airspace surrounding the Diaoyu Islands,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei (洪磊) said. “We are opposed to the operations of Japan’s planes and ships, which violate our rights around Diaoyu. We are on high alert against this escalation.”

As is often the case, Chinese media quoted military academics with a much more fiery response.

“Japan’s desire to fire tracer warning shots as a way of frightening the Chinese is nothing but a joke that shows the stupidity, cruelty and failure to understand their own limitations,” Major General Peng Guangqian (彭光謙) of the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences was quoted as saying by the China News Service and other state media.